Because it is snowing

A preview...

a pocket full of live wires
©2010 Megan Chapman
16x20"

the notes we will never sing
© 2010 Megan Chapman
10x10"

I dream of tornadoes...
© 2010 Megan Chapman
19x10"

You can click on the images to view them larger...

A pocket full of live wires...

scribbles from my studio wall

Let's see...

Last Thursday night I gave a lecture to the Boston Mountain Potters Association, on ways to successfully market ones art. It was fun, I enjoyed the opportunity to share some of the things that have worked for me in the past. I was honored to be asked to speak. I felt it was a good talk but perhaps not one of my best. I was a little scattered and perhaps a bit fast in my talking, but I enjoyed it and they seemed to as well. So that makes the 3rd formal speaking engagement of my career.

Also last week, a review was written about the 20th annual small and miniature works exhibition at the Aaron Gallery in Washington D.C. I was thrilled to find my work mentioned. "...Megan Chapman’s works, with their dark, yet very deep and intense colors, convey a sense of power and strength so aptly expressed in her piece titled Implosion." You can read the whole review here and don't forget if you are in the Washington D.C. area please visit the show, which ends at the end of the month.

I also mailed off a small work on paper from my Etsy shop to Finland, I have never sent anything to Finland before, so that was a thrill. Thanks to my etsy shop ArtMaven, my work has been collected in Canada, England, The Netherlands, Australia, France, and Scotland as well as all across the United States.

After wrestling with some of the worst artist's block I have ever known, I managed to paint in my studio, with some good and mixed results (out of frustration I cut up a 40x30" canvas into 3x3" ragged squares!!) However, I have continued on with my white series, even though some people were shocked when I mentioned the idea, as I am known for my use of color. These paintings will be more like drawings on painted white canvas and other surfaces; using charcoal, colored pencil, with some words involved as well. While seemingly new they are rooted in a past obsession with white, grey and black drawings that I made in my book series similar to images that appeared in my "cult deprogramming manual" in 1999. It is strange that I feel the need to justify this shift in my work, or prove to people that it is not unknown for me to work with little color.

I will share pictures of these new pieces soon, I just want to let them jell and process them some more. I am excited and I am enjoying keeping them to myself a bit right now.

Tomorrow, I am giving a talk at the Fayetteville Underground called Art Collecting 101: The Thrill of Original Art at the Revolver gallery. I am excited, scared, and looking forward to seeing what happens at this lecture. I have never given a talk like this before. I will give you a full report next week. I really just wanted more people to see the work of Michael Shaeffer and Christopher Baber and their Matters of Consequence exhibition I curated. It is an amazing and dynamic body of work that contains many affordable works, and I thought it would be a good jumping off point for many new or younger collectors. We will see what happens.

I think that is all I have for you this week. I am currently listening to this song on repeat in my ears thanks to my dear friend at the factory. Nothing like new music to get the creative mind up and running again.

Thanks for looking in and remember, everyday we paint is a victory!

4:29 am.

It is still dark and I should be painting.
When my studio was in my home, I would be painting right now.
I would feel the pull of the old creaky stairs, to my attic studio. I would look out the high window and see the sleepy neighborhood and I would feel that edgy sickness and thrill of being awake when I wasn't "supposed" to be. I would put my huge headphones on and turn up the music I knew would help me get lost and I would work for several hours at a time. I would see the sky turn from inky black over the mountain to that pale purple to grey blue. Sometimes, I would see the sun start to skim the tops of the trees and I would know it was time to stop working.

I would jump up and down, I would sing, curse, and have conversations in my head with the ghosts in my studio. I would paint for them and I would be happy.

I miss those times.

Better late than never...

Running a bit behind on my blog.

Matters of Consequence, an exhibition I curated featuring the work of Christopher Baber and Michael Shaeffer and their collaborative work as Pedigree, opened on Thursday night in the Revolver gallery in the Fayetteville Underground. I feel it was a great success, and I hope the guys will sell even more works as the show remains up until Jan 30th.

Here is a video of that show:

In other news, Wade Ogle's latest CD, Lovers and Fighters is about to debut and I was thrilled when he wanted to use two of my photographs for inside the CD insert. I am quite pleased with how the project turned out and Wade's new album is great too. Click here to learn more about where you can order a copy. You can also listen to Wade's music here.


And yet in other news, ddp gallery is having her Salon 1 exhibition currently until the end of the month, where you can find many of the artists that she represents, all on the gallery walls together. It is a dynamic mix and you can find a wide range of my work on display. Here is an image from that exhibition.

And besides that, I have been working on three works in progress, and they are all white.. What!?!? White.. Yeah, you heard me.. We will see..

Oh yeah and one last thing the small and miniature show was held over until the end of January at the Aaron gallery in Washington D.C. due to the bad weather they had in December. So, if you live near there please go check it out.

This week it is going to be about painting, music, painting, and not much else... I hope you all are well.

Thanks for checking in.

2010: I haven't a clue...

Oh, but I have plans, dreams, aspirations, and resolutions.
But, mostly I just want to paint and I want to share those paintings and talk about those paintings. I want to talk about those paintings mostly while I am building those paintings, and loving those paintings, and hating those paintings. I want to think about them and discuss them with my studio mates from around the corner to around the world.



There is work to be done in 2010.
I really just want to work.

Happy New Year.

xx- Megan